To be exhibited at next month’s Milan Furniture Fair by Belgian manufacturer Quinze & Milan are a collection of tables by Chinese designer Zhili Liu called ‘Shrub’. Made of wet-lacquered, power-coated aluminium, the pieces use exposed sunken screws to the hold in position a network of ‘branches’, which together form the tables’ legs.

Detail of 'Shrub' table by Zhili Liu for Quinze & Milan, 2010

Of the tables, the designer says: ‘Chinese manufacturing is usually famous for large quantity, low quality and very limited new material and technology. So for Chinese designers, creating low quantity products with high quality in both design and manufacturing has always been a tougher task than it is in most other places. I have been trying to create high specification products with typical Chinese industrial materials and basic techniques, through unusual design and engineering, and these tables are the first prototypes in this direction – which I believe could be another route for “Chinese design” aside from reinterpreting the traditional decorative elements.’